Sleep and performance are correlated!

We still do not understand the requirement of sleep for our wellbeing. Sleep is regulated by internal body milieu, meaning that the longer we stay awake, the longer we need to sleep. Its hallmark is the increased slow-wave activity in the brain during non-REM periods. One theory then proposes that sleep is regulated in two ways: firstly  the slow-wave activity is dependent on sleep-wake history, and secondly  the circadian regulation of the sleep-wake cycles.

Why do we need to sleep? Two hypotheses are circulating, trying to describe the need of sleep. The first one suggests that non-REM sleep gives us periods of low metabolism during which the neural energy resources are replenished. The other hypothesis proclaims neural plasticity, i.e. establishment or elimination of relevant and irrelevant connections between neurons is accomplished during sleep.

A recent paper in Nature favors this second hypothesis. An experiment was performed in which human subjects learned a demanding task requiring hand and eye coordination. The session was carried out before going to sleep. After measurements of EEG and evaluation of the results, the researchers concluded that sleep enhanced performance in a subsequent re-test on the learned task. The event was correlated with longer non-REM slow-wave brain activity. This experiment offers new evidence for the brain plasticity hypothesis.

For us guitarists, this means that repetition of newly learned songs, licks or whatever we try to remember before going to sleep will enhance our memory of it. So, before bed-time  repetition time!

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